Telephonic communication is a necessary adjunct of modern society. The ability to effectuate telephonic communications between two, or more, communication stations by way of a telephonic network permits telephonic communications to be effectuated between the communication stations irrespective of their respective positions. Telephonic communication permits the effectuation of both voice services and data services.
Telephonic networks have been installed throughout significant portions of the populated areas of the world. Communication stations connected to the telephonic network are used to effectuate the communication therethrough. A calling party utilizing an originating communication station initiates a communication session to be terminated with a receiving party at a receiving station. In a conventional telephonic network, initiation at the originating station of the communication service is made by the originating party entering dialing digits associated with the intended receiving station pursuant to a call request. The telephonic network interprets the dialing digits and alerts the receiving station of the call request. A receiving party positioned at the receiving station accepts the call request, such as by taking the receiving station “off-hook.” The communication service is then effectuated between the originating station and the receiving station by way of the telephonic network.
More recently, cellular, and other radio, communication systems have also been installed to encompass significant portions of the populated areas of the world. The cellular communication systems include network infrastructures which are connected to conventional, wire line telephonic communication systems. A mobile station operable in a cellular, or other radio, communication system communicates by way of radio links with the network infrastructure of the cellular communication system.
A user of a mobile station is able to originate, or to receive, telephonic communications with another communication station. The other communication station can be formed of a conventional wire line station or another mobile station. Because a communication path extending to, and from, the mobile station is formed upon a radio link, wire line connections, conventionally required to connect a conventional wire line station to a telephonic network, are obviated. Increased communication mobility is, therefore, inherent in a cellular, or other radio, communication system. While a mobile station is a radio transceiver, mobile stations are generally constructed to mimic the operation of a conventional, wire line communication station. A user of a mobile station communicates telephonically in manners analogous to the manners by which a user of a conventional wire line communication station is used pursuant to a communication session.
Advancements in communications, and processing technologies, have permitted the implementation of additional features and services associated with communications effectuated by way of a telephonic network. Telephonic switches, and other control devices, are regularly constructed, for instance, to provide for specialized delivery services, such as call forwarding and do-not-disturb services. Such services are provided both in conventional wire line telephonic systems, as well as cellular, and other radio, systems. The additional features and services are generally provided pursuant to a service subscription in which the user, i.e., the subscriber, subscribes to the additional communication services pursuant to a subscription plan.
A do-not-disturb service is a call control service. When a do-not-disturb feature is activated pursuant to a service subscription, a call, intended to be terminated at the communication station associated with the subscription is not delivered to the communication station. Analogously, call forwarding services, such as call forwarding-busy (CFB), call forwarding-default (CFD), call forwarding-no answer (CFNA), and call forwarding-unconditional (CFU) are call redirection services. When a call forwarding feature is activated pursuant to a service subscription, a call, intended to be terminated at the station associated with the subscription is, instead, forwarded to another communication station. That is to say, the call requesting the effectuation of the communication service is redirected to another terminating end point.
The aforementioned services and features were initially implemented with respect to voice services. Increasingly, however, telephonic systems, both wire line systems and cellular, and other radio systems, are used to effectuate data services. While voice services are user-specific, data services are not necessarily so. Data services are, instead, sometimes communication station-specific rather than user-specific. The availability of the subscriber, or other user, of the communication station is not necessarily required for the effectuation of a data service which is communication station-specific. Conventional systems in which the do-not-disturb and call forward services are activated, however, automatically redirect a data-service call and thereby prevent delivery of the data service to the intended receiving communication station.
An improved manner by which to effectuate a data service in a communication system which provides such additional subscription services would, therefore, be advantageous.
It is in light of this background information related to the effectuation of data services in a communication system that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.